Tube, conduit, and pipe cleaner.



PATENTED FEB. 13, 1906. A. PIGKLES & P. R. SEWELL.

TUBE, CONDUIT, AND PIPE CLEANER.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 8, 1903.

if a Main, e 96 e6 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALFRED PICKLES, or WAKEFIELD, AND PERoYamLAfY SEWELL. or BRADFORD, ENGLAND;

TUBE, CONDUIT, AND PIPE CLEANEFL Specification of Letters Patent;

Patented Feb. 13, 1906.

Application filed October 8,1903. Serial No. 176,28'7.

To all whom It may concern: Be it known that we, ALFRED PIcKLEs, residing at 3 Stoneleigh Terrace, Belle Vue, Wakefield, and PERCY RAGLAN SEWELL, residing at 41 Sunbridge road, Bradford, in the county of York, England, subjects of the King of Great Britain and Ireland, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Connection with Tube, Conduit, Pipe, and the Like Cleaners, (for which we have made application for Letters Patent in Great Britam, No. 27,445, datedDecember 12, 1902,) of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in connection with apparatus for cleaning, scouring, and scraping water, steam, gas, and other tubes, pipes, conduits, and mains, the object being to provide in one convenient and simple piece of apparatus means for effectu. ally removing obstructions and lmpuritles from such pipes, tubes, or mains and to cause the-apparatus to rotate and travel forward by pressure of fluid within the tubes when in operation.

In the apparatus at present employed for removing obstructions and foreign matter from the interior of tubes or the like the desired rotation and propulsion is commonly obtained by the pressure of the fluid within the tubes-which are to be operated upon; but it is frequently found necessary in connectlon with such forms of apparatus to con le two or more-independent members toget er for the urpose of insuring that the ap aratus shall receive sufficient-power from t e fluld within the tube to cause it to rotate and to travel. simultaneously. Our 1nvent1on is intended to obviate the necesslty of employing separate members andindependent devices for obtaining the necessary power and to make each plece of apparatus or cleaner selfcontained, complete 1n ltself, and ca able of rotating and traveling Independent y while inoperation. I p

In the accompanying drawings, Flgure 1 is a'sectional elevation illustrating one modification of the improved cleanenwithin a curved pipe, while Fig. 2 is a similar view showing a cleaner accordlng to another modification of the invention within a straight pi e.

cording to one form, as shown in Fig. 1, a series of cutters b are mounted on a. sleeve 1,

n carrymg our invention into effect acwhich is freely mounted on a spindle a. A circular brush 0 is also mounted on the sleeve d,

and a second similar brush is mounted on the opposite end of thespindle a, the brushes comprising bristles or the like tightly clamped between disks 0 0.. The sleeve (1 is provided with a number of broad helical blades f, which under the influence of the current or pressure of water or other fluid in the mains lmpart a rotational movement to the cutters b. These cutters are preferably of varying degrees of fineness and com osed ofvariou's materials, so as to effectual y operate upon the obstructions within the pipe or main.- The plates 0 0 of t e brush y are perforated, as at 0, to permit the water or other fluid to pass therethrough and impinge upon the blades The brushes and 0 offer sufficient resistance to the'water to enable the latter to impart a forward movement to the a paratus. It will be noticed that the s indlb a does not necessarily rotate, but that t e sleeve 11 freely rotates on the spindle. At-

tached to the rear end of the spindle a, by a universal joint p is a second spindle a, terminating in a-swiveled shackle h, to which a rope or cable '5 is attached to enable the apparatusto be removed from the pipe or main and to enable its speed or travel therethrough A to be checked, if desired. A sleeve 6 is pro,

vided with helical brushes, comprising bristles Z, clamped between plates m, and also blades-'70 intermediate of the with helica brushes. The sleeve is freely mounted on the spindle a, which, like the spindle a, does not necessarily rotate. The object of this brush is to clean the pipe or main from any loose debris left by the cuttersb and brushes 0 and j and which'is not carriedawav by the current of water or other fluid. The brush is rotated under the influence of the fluidacting upon the blades is and plates 1a. It will be noticed that there are two dlstlnct'parts to the apparatusnamely, a cuttin device and a 'slmple cleaning'ldevice; but a though they are combined into one apparatus, yet,

uence the rothe rotation of "one does not in tation of the other. They may thus rotate at diflerent s eeds, which is desirable, as they obviously efl dct work of diflerent nature.

In carrying out the invention according to another form, as illustrated in Fig. 2,'instead of connecting the cutting device to the simpl cleaning device by means of a universal joint they are arranged upon the same spindle a). The cutters l) are in this case lL'Od on the spindle, which is rotfitted by a turbine g,-'

comprising a set of rotary blades 9, fixedly mounted 011' the spindle a, set of directing-blades g", lixedly the sleeve 9 of the shackle It, which sleeve is freely mounted on the spindlea. The cleaning device comprises helical brushes formed of bristles l, clamped betweenplates m,"

mounted on a sleeve 0, which is freely mounted on the spindle (1 it will thus be seen that the water or otherlluid acting on the turbineblades g rotates the spindle (1,, and therefore the cutters 1), whereas 'the rotation of the cleaning-brushes 1S 'ell'ected independently by the influence of the fluid on the plates m.

The cleaning device andcutting device, siini' lady to the first-described modification, can rotate independently and at dill'erent speeds. llaving thus described cur -invention, what we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, iS'T.

1. In an apparatus for cleaning pipes and the like, the combination with a spindle, of a set of cutters fast to the spindle, a sleeve loosely mounted on the spindle and provided and a stationary mounted on with a set of cleaning-brushes, means for retating the spindle and means for rotating the sleeve independent of the spindle.

2. in an apparatus for cleaning pipes and the like, the combination with a spindle,of a set of cutters mounted at one end of the spindlc and means for rotating the spindlemounted at the otlierend thereof, a sleeve loosely mounted on the spindle between the cutters and the spindlerotating means, brushes mounted on the sleeve and means for rotat bristles 

